‘Children must play right now’

In the ninth episode of the hit series, “Extraordinary Attorney Woo,” a man appears who calls himself “commander-in-chief of the children’s liberation army.”

The man (actor Koo Kyo-hwan), who officially changed his name on his resident registration into “Bang Gu-ppong” (meaning “fart sound”), takes 12 children — third to fourth graders — to a mountain on a hagwon (private academy) bus. He then lets them play games such as hide-and-seek, explore nature by picking up acorns and eat snacks, for about half a day. Bang, as their self-claimed commander-in-chief, leads them in a chant: “First, children must play right now. Second, children must be healthy right now. Third, children must be happy right now.”

But these hours of play with the children get him charged with kidnapping.

Bang is actually the son of the head of the hagwon. The hagwon is sought after by parents due to its “locked classroom,” where the students, after school, are forced to stay until 10 p.m. (the legally permitted closing time for hagwons in Seoul and several cities according to regional authorities’ ordinances) without having dinner and with a limit on the number of times they are permitted to go to the bathroom.

Due to being locked up in the classroom, the 12 children suffer from a lack of sleep, proper dinner and, of course, time to play. The third to fourth graders are studying differentials and integral calculus, which is from the high school curriculum.

The episode is in some ways a dramatic exaggeration, but some of the hagwon scenes actually do take place in real life in Korea, where the zeal for a good education and the competition to enter prestigious universities are at the world’s highest levels.

In Mok-dong and Daechi-dong, the two Seoul districts called the “meccas of private education” for the top private academies gathered there, elementary schoolchildren — or even preschoolers — attend two to three institutes a day after their regular schooling until late evening. At around 10 p.m., it is common to see the double-parked cars of parents waiting to pick up their children.

Some say times have changed and that such rote learning of math, Korean literature and English studies does not work anymore. However, when the importance of other fields emerges along with the changing times, hagwon teaching in such new fields pops up, as evidenced by the mushrooming of computer coding academies since several years ago. There are even hagwons that claim to teach creativity.

This reality is the reason that the vast majority of citizens oppose the Yoon Suk-yeol administration’s recent announcement seeking to lower the age of children starting elementary school from the current six to five years old.

The government plan is based on the belief that having children start in the public school system at an earlier age would address inequality in education and reduce parents’ private education expenses — a belief many people do not agree with.

One of the reasons for such widespread opposition by parents with young children is that classes for first and second graders finish at around 1 p.m., earlier than kindergartens, which usually finish at around 3 to 4 p.m. and offer extended childcare sessions until 6 to 7 p.m. In other words, there will be an hours-long vacuum in childcare, which even now forces many working moms to quit their jobs when their children enter elementary school.

The government, in response, said it would expand after-school childcare sessions — which last now until 5 p.m. — to 8 p.m. But this measure is not gaining support, as it means children will just end up staying idly in their classrooms until late evening.

Additionally, the issue of childcare does not explain the opposition from all walks of life, including those who do not have a young child and thus would not be affected by a school entry age change. The concerns shared by the majority of citizens are: an earlier school entry age will only make children enter the world of private education and competition earlier.

Although the government says that the curriculum for five-year-olds will be play-based, starting school means entering into academic competition and the rat race of hagwon education. The 3- to 9-percent rises in the stock prices of private education companies following the government announcement proved that these concerns have grounds.

Bang’s chant was quoted during a protest against the government plan held near the presidential office in Yongsan District, Aug. 5. Signs held by the protesters read: “Children must play right now. Yoon Suk-yeol should learn from Bang Gu-ppong.”

The strong protest ultimately pressed Education Minister Park Soon-ae to step down, Monday, 10 days after having announced the policy plan.

The drama implies that Bang gets a jail term and the children go back to attending the hagwon as they were doing before. However, in reality, backed by the overwhelming opposition of the people, I hope that the government will retract its plan and that five-year-olds will be able to play, be healthy and be happy right now, because, as Bang said, it will be too late for them if they seek to do so later after going to university, getting a job and getting married.